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(No ModeL) LE ROY S. WHITE. ELECTRIC CALL AND SIGNAL.

No. 284,348. Patented Sept. 4,-1883.

N. PETERS. Photo-Ufllugnphlr. wmin m. 0.1;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

E ROY s. WHITE, or WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

ELECTRIC CALL AND SIGNAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of .Letters Batent No. 284,348, dated September 4, 1883.

Application filed July 28,1883. [No model.)

To all whom it may concern.- Be it known that I, LE ROY S.'.WHITE, of Waterbury, in the county of N ew Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric Calls and Signals, of which the following is a specification.

. My invention is more particularly applicable to calls or signals which are intended for use on telephone-lines for Calling any one of a number of subscribers on the same line without calling or disturbing any of the other subscribers, and the call or signal. instrument;

' through which a succession of impulses are sent, the barrels all being arrested at the start- 7 tem, and to render unnecessary anylcareful at-- i r tentionlto the strength of the battery. To-

this. end I employ,'in connection with the .ratch et-barrel, electromagnet, "armature, and c which forms the subject of the present inven-i tion is in some respects similar to that which forms thesubj ect for Letters Patent No. 239, 2.07,

granted to me March22, 1881. According to; *"both my former and my present invention the i instruments of the several subscribers and at' the central office are furnished with ratchet or toothed barrels having an equal number of teeth, which must be more than the number of subscribers on the line, and each of which has a projection,and the barrels of all the in struments are brought to a common starting- 1 point by. the armatures of electro-magnets,

ing-point by stops, which are obtruded in the way of the projections on the barrels. Before any of the subscribers can be called the ratchetbarrels of all the instruments must be released 1 s from their stops and again advanced. According to my former invention twobatteries of unequal i strength were. necessary, and the weaker battery was used to advance theratch: f et-barrels of the several instrumentsstep by j step, while a current from the stronger lbattery was necessary'to release the ratchet-ban f rels from their stops and to send a call-current.

The object of my present invention is to en able one batteryor single-current magneto-machine only, which need not be of any particular 1 strength, to serve all the purposes of advancing the ratchet-barrels step bystep, of releasing the barrels, and of sending call-currents,

and thereby to simplifythe call or signal sys- V actuating-pawls of a call or signal instrument of the kind above described a permanent magnet carrying a stop, and a double key for sending. currents of opposite polarities. By

operating one key I send currents of such polarity that the permanent magnet will be moved in onedirection, and so Caused to move the stop into the path of the projection on the ratchet-barrel, and' that the ratchet-barrel will be advanced until said projection is arrested by said stop, and by operating the other keyI send currents of opposite polarity, which cause the permanent magnet to move in. the opposite direction to withdraw the stop to re lease the barrel. Each instrument is also provided with a bell-magnet andvibrating bell,

and with acircuit-closer for shunting apart .of the current through the bell-magnet, and

the stop carried by the aforesaid permanent magnet, when moved into position to arrest the ratchet-barrels, also prevents the move ment of the: barrel-operating armature far enough to operate the said circuit-closer.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a partly sectional elevation of an instrument embodying my invention. plans of the instrument and operating-key connected by circuit-wires. Fig. 4 is a detail view of the ratchet-barrel and its actuatingpawls.

manent magnet and the stop.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding'parts in all the figures. A .B designate, respectively, the Call and bell electro-magnets, which are mounted on the base (3; and A B designate, respectively, the

call-armature andbellarmature, the latter of which carries a bell-hammer, B. Upon the standard B is mounted the bell B, and the Figs. -2 and 3 are Fig. 5 is a. perspective View of the" barrel alone, and Fig. 6 is a plan of the perhammer B under'the control of the springs a a, is operated by the bell-magnet like the hammer of any ordinary vibrating bell.

D designates the barrel, mounted in bearings,

so that it is capable of free rotation, and hav- I ing teeth: 1) around its circumference adjacent to one-end, and a single notch, c, in its circumference adjacent to the other end. As here shown the said notch is simply acontinuation of one of the notches which form the teeth I); but it may be considered as a. notch IOO independent of said teeth. The barrel D is also furnished with a long tooth or projection,

' d, which is out of line'with the teeth 1).

Upon the call-armature A are secured two pawls e c, which act at opposite points in the circumference of the barrel, and the former of which, 0, acts during the attractive movement of the armature to advance the barrel a halftooth, while the latter, 6, acts during the retractive movement of the armature to advance the barrel the other half of a tooth. These two pawls act upon the barrel in a manner somewhat resembling the reverse movement of an escapement, preventing the ratchetbarrel from being advanced too far, and giving it an exactly equal and uniform movement at each movement of the call-armature A.

To the call-armature A issecu red a tooth, f, which is in range with the notch c in the barrel, and when the armature is attracted and the notch c is opposite the tooth f the latter will enter said notch and permit a full movement of the armature; but when the tooth f strikes upon the cylindric surface of the barrel so great an attractive movement of the armature will be prevented.

Upon the top bar or plate, 0, of the magnets is a lug or bracket, 5 in which is a contactscrew, 9, (best shown in Fig. 1;) and E designates a spring, which is normally out of contact with said screw, but which is capable of being moved to make contact therewith. The said screw and spring constitute a bell-circuit closer for the bell-magnet B, and the spring is connected by a rod or pin, 9", with an insulated projection, g", on the call-armature A, so as to be actuated thereby. When the notch c in the barrel D is opposite the tooth f, the armature A will move suffi ciently far to close the circuit through E g,- but otherwise it will not be allowed a great enough movement to close said circuit.

- F designates a. permanent magnet, ghere shown as pivoted at h to the bar 0, and the ends of which embrace or straddle the pole h of the call-magnet A. To the ends of the magnet F is attached a plate, F, having portions 1' 'i of different degrees of projection. I The poles of this permanent magnet are designated by the letters n s, and when a current of such polarity is sent through the call-magnet A as" to attract the pole at the permanent magnet is moved into the position shown in Fig. 2. The portion i of the stop-plate F is then out of line with the projection d on the barrel, and does not arrest the latter; but when the polarity of the current is reversed the pole s is attracted and the permanent magnet is moved to bring the portion '5 of the stop-plate F into line with the projection d, so that when the latter strikes it the barrel D will be arrested. At the same time that the stop-plate F is moved so that the portion twill arrest the barrel the portion i willbe brought into line with the pawl e and will prevent the full movement of the armature and the closing of the circuit through E 9' even if the notch c be opposite the tooth f. The purpose of this will be hereinafter referred to.

"G G designate the circuit-wires, which are connected with binding-posts j j, and the said binding -posts are in a closed circuit, which includes the call-magnet A. The said bindingposts are also connected by an open circuit, which includes the spring E, the contact 9, and the bell magnet B. Of course, when circuit is closed through the spring E, contact 9, and bell-magnet B, a portion of the current will be shunted through the bell-magnet and the bell sounded.

H designates a double key provided with two buttons, N S, for sending currents of opposite polarity, and which is connected by conductors I I with a single battery, 1 or with a single-current magneto-electric machine. The strength vof the battery may be variable.

I would here remark that the notches c in the barrels of the several instruments on the line must be formed at different distances behind the long tooth or projection, (Z, corresponding to the different numbers of the several subscribers.

I will now describe the operation of calling any one of the subscribers. p

In the first place I operate the key S a greater number of times than there are teeth in the'barrel D. The first current sent will attract the pole s of the permanent magnets F, and will move the stop-plates F, so that the portions *5 will be in line with the projections d of the several barrels D, andthe succeeding currents will bring all the barrels to a state of rest with their projections (I stopped by the' portions 1', that being the common startingpoint. at which it is arrested the notch 0 passes the tooth f, and if it were not prevented the circuit-closer'E g would momentarily sound the bell. This is prevented by the portion 2" of the plate F, carried by the permanent magnet, being in line with the pawl e, and forming an abutment therefor to prevent the tooth f from entering the notch 0 when the stop F is adjusted to arrest the barrel; butwhen the barrel is released the portion 1" is moved away from the pawl e, and no longer arrests the movement of the armature. The key N is then operated,which sends a current of reverse polarity, and the permanent magnet F is moved to carry the stop F away from the tooth or projection (I, thus releasing the barrels of all the instruments. To call any of the instruments I now operate the key S a .number of times-one less than the number of the instrument or subscriber to be called-and Before each barrel reaches the point then operate the key N once, which serves to bring the notch c in the barrel D of the instrusubscriber N o. l, I would simply press the key N once; to call subscriber N o. 2, Iwould press the key S once and the key N once; to call subscriber No. 3, I would press the key S twice and the keyN once, and to call subscriber No. 4, I would press the key S three times and the key N once. (In calling any instrument after N o. 1 it is necessary to press the key S and then the key N, because as long as the key S is pressed the portion 2" of the stop F in line with the pawl e, and hence the calling of any instrument before the one desired will be prevented. When the tooth or proj ectiond p i is brought round to the stop-plateF, it presses upon the said plate only when the pawls e e are acting'tomove it forward, and when the armatureis at rest the tooth or projection is very slightlyout of contact with said stopl plate. When a current is'sent to release the bar- 12o rel, the permanent magnet, being very light, is moved before the armature A, and hence is moved to withdraw' the stop-plate from in front of the pro ection cl before the latter impinges against said plate.

'WVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

a 1. The combination, with the electromag- *net,the toothed barrel provided with a notch, the armature provided with a turning pawl or pawls for advancing-the barrel, and with a tooth for entering said notch, and a bell-ciris held I e, a bell-circuit closer, the

cuit closer capable of operation by said armapoint, substantially as and for the purpose described. a

2. The combination, with the electro-magnet, the toothed barrel provided with a notch, the armature provided with a turning pawl or pawls for advancing the barrel, and with a tooth for entering said notch, and a circuitcloser for a bell-circuit capable of operation by said armature, of a permanent magnet capable of operation by the electro-magnet, and carrying a stop to arrest the armature and prevent a sufficient movement thereof to allow the armature to close the said circuit, substan tially as and for the purpose described. 7

3. The combination of the electro-magnetA, the toothed barrel D, with a projection, d, and notch c, the armature provided with pawls e permanent magnet F, and the stop-plate F, carried by said magnet, and serving both as a stop to the said barrel and the said armature, substantially as and for the purpose described.

LE ROY s. WHITE. 

